BUKOWSKI NEVER DID THIS. November 25 - December 9. 33,000 words.. Bukowski never wrote 250 books without selling a word to New York or Hollywood. He also didn't "create a body of work, his stack, and invent a form to present it in, daily typewriting." Nor did he publish his books, himself, in real time, daily, and respond to reader comment, in the work, so that his books were not only written, and published, in real time, they were interactive, and responded to reader comment, after he had had time to think about the matter. The book shows how Art Brew combines writing, work, and family. And fights the nomenklatura, the Retread Mafia, the old ennui, out on a quiet spree. The book is divided into alternating sections, Diary, and Novel. The novel is an underground writer procedural novel and the diary is the diary of writing an underground writer procedural novel. And working. Etc.
A POOR MAN'S LIKE A GOPHER IN A TUB. December 10 - December 18. 23,000 words. I change the subtitle of The Celebrated Jumping Mullet of Bay County, Florida to A Sextet, and begin writing the last book of the series, A POOR MAN'S LIKE A GOPHER IN A TUB. It will go to my six-month performance appraisal. I'll combine it with BUKOWSKI NEVER DID THIS and call the two books, together, BUKOWSKI NEVER DID THIS: A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF AN UNDERGROUND WRITER. From November 15, 2003 to November 24, 2004 I wrote 18 books. And worked two full-time jobs, with a month off in between. Gerald and Del visited, at Christmas, we had a Brown Family Reunion, and pick-in, and fish-fry, afterwards, Owen, Jean, and Ella visited, twice, and we all flew to Seattle for my mother's 85th birthday and Saunders Family Reunion. Phew--white folks! I change the subtitle of The Celebrated Jumping Mullet of Bay County, Florida to A Quarter, make Bukowski Never Did This: A Year in the Life of an Underground Writer a two-book series, and pitch the books together, as a book in two parts.
ORTS. December 19 - December 29. 20,000 words. I see that Bukowski Never Did This: A Year in the Life of an Underground Writer is a book in three parts, and begin writing about the domestic arrangements of Swiss-Family Two-Underemployed-Professionals Family. Formerly two discouraged workers. Now, we’re not discouraged, just tired, harried, and easily overwhelmed. At least Brew has quit drinking. I change the name of the three-book series to Bukowski Never Did This: A Year in the Life of an Underground Writer and His Family. We have company, over the holidays. In-laws and outlaws. Grandpa made white liquor, daddy grew pot, and I cook crystal meth. Trollope’s chronicles were multigenerational. I don’t cook meth, I apply for anti-drug prevention grants. But to do that you have to know what’s going on. Just Say No is like throwing Rid-a-Bug on a rattlesnake. Or teaching abstinence-only. The only category for which funding was increased, by the Bush administration.